Chernobyl Prayer: Voices from Chernobyl in Around the World in 80 Books

Nov 01, 2016 Jim rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: history, soviet-union-russia, non-fiction, craziness, health_issues

Shortly after any major disaster or bloodletting, Svetlana Alexievich will be there with her notepad and (presumably) recording device to take down the words of the people willing to talk about mayhem. Chernobyl (meaning literally "black event") certainly qualified as a disaster, even though only one person was killed outright and entombed by the collapsed reactor. Chernobyl is the disaster that keeps on giving, and the full scope of the carnage may never be known.

On reading this book, one is re Shortly after any major disaster or bloodletting, Svetlana Alexievich will be there with her notepad and (presumably) recording device to take down the words of the people willing to talk about mayhem. Chernobyl (meaning literally "black event") certainly qualified as a disaster, even though only one person was killed outright and entombed by the collapsed reactor. Chernobyl is the disaster that keeps on giving, and the full scope of the carnage may never be known.

On reading this book, one is reminded of the reasons why a communist system will not work: when people are underpaid and corrupt and live in fear of their government officials, you get a system that gives you Chernobyl. I'm not even sure that the reason for the meltdown was covered in the book; the memorable excerpts were the reactions of the average person who had to deal with the situation. It was astonishing how little was known of the danger imposed by the "friendly atom". Soldiers, firemen, farmers....all exposed to the harmful effects of radiation, sometimes with the only protective equipment being a raincoat!!! When robots ceased to function due to excess radiation, the brave and hardy Russians were sent in to do the cleanup. The outcome is predictable: death, disease and deformities, possibly for generations to come.

Alexeivich has interviewed the bereaved and the dispossessed. The stories are heartrending: in addition to the illnesses and deaths families had to abandon pets (which were often killed in front of their eyes),and give up possessions and homes for which their compensation was woefully inadequate. Not understanding the persistence of radiation, many would sneak back into the affected zone to remove or loot now radioactive items and remove them to "clean" zones. Worse, many went back to take up residence.

Those of us fortunate enough to live in North America where our system is relatively free from corruption should give thanks that we have the safety regulations in place for all hazardous work; next time a safety inspector comes around, thank them for their diligence. Apparently at Chernobyl the alarm button didn't even work. By the end of the book I was starting to loathe the Russian system of semi-official corruption, misinformation, cronyism and intimidation. The Russian people deserve better.

This book has caused me to ponder our future, and I think this is it.
...more

30 likes · Like · see review

Nov 23, 2015 Rachel rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 2015-reads

Wow... this was an incredible book. I have tried to leave a review as I was progressing to capture my thoughts, but nothing saved via my goodreads app, so hopefully I'm not spamming people with my opinions.

What struck me early on in the book, and was repeated throughout, was the general theme around war and comparison of this nuclear tragedy to war. Naively, I thought this book would just be mainly about people dealing with Chernobyl, but what I learned is that the people who were dealing with t Wow... this was an incredible book. I have tried to leave a review as I was progressing to capture my thoughts, but nothing saved via my goodreads app, so hopefully I'm not spamming people with my opinions.

What struck me early on in the book, and was repeated throughout, was the general theme around war and comparison of this nuclear tragedy to war. Naively, I thought this book would just be mainly about people dealing with Chernobyl, but what I learned is that the people who were dealing with the tragedy of Chernobyl were often dealing with histories of war fought on their land, or soldiers even recently returning from Afghanistan only to be sent off to Chernobyl for clean up efforts. These were people that have struggled just in life or so it seemed. For some people, they seemed so used to death. For many, it wasn't anywhere nearly as devastating as what "war" is at least during the "Here and now" of what people were facing. Other examples of this would be the comparison of death from war vs potential (hideous) death from Chernobyl. Quote from a soldier returning from Afghanistan when comparing death & war to Chernobyl "When I made it back from Afghanistan, I knew that I'd live. Here it was the opposite: it's kill you only after you got home". But in reality, when comparing Chernobyl to a war, you could see it as a hundred year war... we just do not know the long term impact of survival rates (cancer, birth morbidity, birth defects, etc etc).

The description of government cover ups and miscommunication to civilians is horrendous on every level. Not to mention the corruption of reselling tainted meat, tainted equipment, etc to other parts of Russia/former soviet states. By the end of the book, I am sooo angry and distrusting of any government!

The individual stories are heart-wrenching, sad, incredibly interesting, and at times just unfathomable from my perspective. I simply couldn't put myself in a similar mindset at times, and this may just be the difference between someone from the former Soviet Union and someone from a western (American) upbringing. This is not a criticism at all, and instead, I feel so much more empathy for a different worldview than before I started the book.

I don't know if it's translation or artistic license, but the interviewees told their story so beautifully, with such poetry sometimes.

Thank you to the author for her ten years of service to listening to the people impacted by this tragedy and telling a story that really hasn't been told quite like this. Well deserved Nobel winner! ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Nov 30, 2015 Travellinckx rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: history-sejarah, reportage, memoir, journalism

How little we know about Tchernobyl.

"Les journaux et les magazines se sont lancés dans une compétition pour écrire les choses les plus horribles. Il s'agit surtout de gens qui n'ont jamais mis les pieds ici et que aiment les cauchemars.[...] Il n'y a pas de roman de science-fiction sur Tchernobyl. La réalité est encore plus fantastique !"

Monologue sur une chose totalement inconnue qui rampe est se glisse à l'intérieur de soi, rencontre par Anatoli Chimanski, journalist. Page 129 - 134 ...more

1 like · Like · see review

May 08, 2020 Julie rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Wow, this was eye-opening, raw, powerful and heart breaking. I had to read this in bits and pieces, some was hard to get through. I’m glad I read it, I learned a lot about this slice of time in our collective environmental history and the particular history of Belarus and Ukraine. #ReadingEurope2020 #belarus #ukraine

Like · see review